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DOCUMENTING LOCAL HISTORY 



JOSEPH SCHAFER 




Reprinted from the Wisconsin Magazine of History 
Volurae V, Number 2, December, 1921 



.UfV^SZ'^t 



DOCUMENTING LOCAL HISTORY 

Joseph Schafer 

The following essay on the town of Newton is presented 
not as a finished piece of local history writing, but rather as 
an outline of significant facts derived from manuscripts 
and printed sources, which may serve as a skeleton to 
be clothed upon and rendered lifelike by a more or less 
extended process of local study. The criticism on local 
histories as customarily produced is that they are (a) un- 
systematic, illustrating only one, or a few, of the multiform 
interests which make up the complex of local community 
life; and (b) largely worthless, because the sources of infor- 
mation are chiefly vague recollections of the author or 
others interviewed by him, instead of being thoroughly 
documented. A third defect often noted is the absence of a 
feeling for general historical results, on the part of workers 
in the local field, which makes so much local history work 
comparatively barren. 

With the vast collection of the primary sources of Wis- 
consin history filed at the State Historical Library, or 
available in Madison, it would be possible to prepare at 
that center an outline, similar to this one, on the history of 
every town in the state. In the first volume of the Wisconsin 
Domesday Book, now in course of preparation, we are 
bringing together the general materials on twenty-five 
selected towns. Some of these can be treated much more 
fully than I have treated Newton, for we have in the library 
much ampler data, and in most cases they will be in more 
extended form. There will be a plat or map showing the 
farms and farmers of 1860, with census data about the 
size, cultivation, value, and productions of the farms, also 
surveyors' notes descriptive of the land before it was set- 
tled; for 1860 there will be, also, a list of the inhabitants of 



4 Joseph Schafer 

each town alphabetized according to heads of families as 
described in the census schedules, giving name of each 
person, age, nativity, and the occupations of adults. A 
general chart will supply comparative agricultural statis- 
tics, from the manuscript census schedules, for the periods 
1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880. Another chart will display 
similar statistics taken from the printed state census for the 
periods 1885, 1895, and 1905. The main facts about the 
political history of all the towns will occupy another chart. 
There will be a general introduction in which historical 
problems emerging from the comparative study of the 
twenty -five towns will be discussed. 

A reading of the subjoined sketch of Newton will con- 
vince the discriminating student that much remains to be 
done on almost every phase of the history. A part of the 
work will be in the nature of a study of local records — of 
the town, the school districts, the churches, and those near- 
by newspapers which reflected best, at different periods, 
the life of this community. Of course, the leaders in the 
distinctive lines of endeavor — farming, politics, teaching, 
and especially morals and religion — will have to be identified 
on the ground and studied as opportunity offers; here is a 
place for the interview with old men and women, also for 
the study of business records, private diaries, letters, and 
so forth. One entire section of the town history, and that 
by far the most important, will deal with moral, intellectual, 
and spiritual conditions. That is wholly left for the local 
researcher because general sources are too meager to 
help us much along these lines. 

A splendid opportunity for good work will be found in 
tracing the antecedents of individuals or groups, making 
clear the conditions out of which they came, the circum- 
stances inducing emigration from the old home and settle- 
ment in the new; the education and special training of 
the pioneer settlers, their personal characters and social 
ideals, are elements to be stressed in the study. 



Documenting Local History 5 

There are numbers of rura- towns in Wisconsin, as well 
as villages and cities, whose history deserves to be written 
in the large and published for the benefit of their own chil- 
dren as well as for the benefit of the state. The time seems 
ripe for a movement to secure a good many individual town 
histories, especially since every community is anxious now 
to honor its soldiers, living and dead; and the State Histor- 
ical Society is prepared to help in the manner indicated 
herein, and in all other practicable ways. 

TOWN OF NEWTON, MANITOWOC COUNTY 

MATERIAL CONDITIONS 

The town of Newton occupies township 18 north of 
range 23 east, in the southeastern part of Manitowoc 
County, five miles southwest of Manitowoc. It lies in part 
on the shore of Lake Michigan, the lake cutting off portions 
of sections 36, 25, and 24, grazing also the southeast corner 
of section 13 (see plat). The surface is undulating and it is 
well watered throughout, the principal streams being Silver 
Creek, Yellow Creek, and Paint Creek, all flowing southeast 
into Lake Michigan. 

Originally, the town was practically covered with a dense 
forest growth which included birch, linn, sugar maple, ash, 
cedar, elm, alder, beech, with some pine and tamarack in 
the sw^amps, also some oak, especially on the higher parts. 
The swamps were rather extensive while the country was 
still forest-covered, as shown by the surveyor's notes ;^ 
yet the township averages high in first-class land, and none 
of it was described as poorer than second-class. The soil 
near the lake was light, but yet fertile, while most of the 
balance was heavier and very productive when cleared. 
Much of the wet land was automatically reclaimed by 
removing the covering of timber, 

^The township was surveyed in 1834 by Byron Kilbourn, who became famous as 
one of the founders of Milwaukee and president of the Milwaukee and Mississippi Rail- 
road Company. 



6 Joseph Schafer 

But there were no prairies or "openings," the whole 
requiring the heavy labor and expense of clearing, which 
helps to explain the comparative slowness of agricultural 
development in the town. While most of the land was 
purchased as early as 1848, in which year seventy-seven 
entries were made, the census of 1860 shows that few of the 
farms were opened to more than half their acreage by that 
time, and that many were only well begun {Wisconsin 
Domesday Book — "Farms and Farmers of 1860"). Com- 
putations based on the agricultural statistics of the three 
census periods, 1860, 1870, and 1880, give the following 
results: In 1860 Newton had 228 farms, containing a total 
of 5,150 acres improved land and a total of 8,749 acres 
unimproved land. In other words, the average farm had 22 
acres improved and 38 acres unimproved. This "average 
farm" would be valued at $541, its implements and machin- 
ery at $33. The suppositious average farmer owned one 
third of a horse, 1 ox, 1 cow, 1 head of "other cattle," 
2 swine, one-third of a sheep, and his total livestock was val- 
ued at $64. He produced 16 bushels of wheat, 44 of rye, no 
corn, 46 of oats, 9 of peas, 45 of Irish potatoes, and 4 of 
barley. He made 57 pounds of butter, and put up 2 tons 
of hay. 

In 1870 the number of farms was 218, a decrease of 10. 
The improved land amounted to 8,401 acres, the unim- 
proved to 6,813, showing that more wild land was now 
included in the farms, even while the farms were growing 
fewer in number, thus increasing the acreage by a double 
process. The average farm now contained 38 improved 
acres and 31 unimproved. It was valued at $2,066. The 
value of implements and machinery was $86. There was, to 
each farm, on the average, 1 horse and half an ox, 2 cows, 1 
"other cattle," 3 sheep, 2 swine, — a total livestock valua- 
tion of $315. The average farm now produced 110 bushels 
of wheat, 40 of rye, no corn, 109 of oats, 28 of potatoes, 24 



Documenting Local History 7 

of peas, 10 of barley, 10 pounds of wool, 195 pounds of 
butter, and it made 7 tons of hay. 

By 1880 the number of farms had increased to 292 and 
the total acreage in farms had increased greatly also. This 
was the decade of local railway construction, the Milwaukee, 
Lake Shore and Western being completed to Manitowoc in 
1873. The amount of improved land is given as 13,991 
acres, the unimproved at 9,508 acres. The average farm 
now had 47 acres improved land, to 32 acres unimproved, 
and was valued at $2,738. Implements and machinery are 
worth $142 and livestock $197. The total value of farm 
productions, on the average, was $342. There were 2 horses, 
nearly 4 milch cows and 2 "other cattle," 2 sheep, and 2 swine. 
The wheat crop amounted to 216 bushels from 13 acres, 
rye 18 from 1 acre, oats 184 from 7 acres, and barley 36 from 
1 acre. There was still no Indian corn. The average farm 
produced 86 pounds of butter and 499 gallons of milk. The 
total number of milch cows in the town was 1,155. The 
farms may be regarded as "made" by 1880, and all the 
land of the township, swamps included, must have been 
reckoned within the farms to make the aggregate acreage; 
even then the total seems excessive. 

Averaging only 79 acres, the farms of this town were 
smaller on the whole than those of any other of twenty-two 
towns compared with it. But the acreage of improved land 
was greater than in Prairie du Chien and Sevastopol, though 
less than in the other twenty. The kinds of production and 
the annual value of the production both indicate that, as 
yet, no considerable specialization had occurred except in 
the growing of peas. This town led all in that particular, 
the total production amounting to over nine thousand 
bushels, or 30 bushels to the average farm. The annual 
value of the total productions was, however, the lowest of the 
towns compared, with the single exception of Prairie du 
Chien, and one is forced to look upon the community as 



8 Joseph Schafer 

made up at that time (1880) of families who were generally 
in very moderate circumstances. However, the census shows 
us a few good-sized farms. Four had 100 acres or more of 
improved land each, and an annual production of $1,000. 
These four farmers were distinctly in advance of the rest 
pecuniarily, other incomes ranging usually between $150 and 
$500, with a few below the minimum and a few above the 
maximum. It would be interesting to know to what extent 
differing incomes were evened by the fact that some of the 
surplus labor of the smaller farms was employed for wages 
on the larger farms. There was actually paid out, in wages, 
from incomes aggregating $16,300, the sum of $3,900, or a 
little less than 24 per cent. 

By means of the state census it is possible to trace the 
agricultural history of the town down to the year 1905. 
We find that in 1885 Newton was credited with 13,374 
acres improved land, and 8,080 unimproved and wood 
land. The cash value of the farms was given as $495,640. 
One of the new productions appearing prominently in the 
1885 schedule is cheese, Newton being credited with a 
total production of 564,781 pounds, valued at $51,150. 
The butter record was missed, the town being accidentally 
omitted from the schedule exhibiting that item. Peas 
continued to be produced in considerable quantities, but 
there were only 14 acres of corn in the town. 

In 1895 the improved acreage had risen to 17,539, and 
the unimproved had fallen to 4,457. The value had risen 
to $1,123,550, an increase of more than 100 per cent in 
ten years. The cheese production was 141,661 pounds man- 
ufactured in 11 factories located within the town, which 
drew milk from 928 cows. The production of butter 
totaled 85,000 pounds. There was one creamery. The 
combined value of the butter and cheese was less than 
that of the cheese produced in 1885, so that one suspects 
errors in reporting or in printing the returns. 



Documenting Local History 9 

In 1905 Newton had 304 farms, only 12 more than in 
1880. The total acreage was 21,114 — improved 17,299, 
unimproved 3,815. The cash value of farms was given as 
$1,690,000. The town was producing a little wheat, but 
more rye, oats, and barley, and especially peas. Its chief 
wealth was in cattle, particularly cows, of which it had 
2,039, valued at $50,880. It produced 78,739 gallons of 
milk, valued at $7,662; also 63,914 pounds of butter, valued 
at $13,498. Its 4 creameries, with 144 patrons milking 
1,028 cows, produced 146,059 pounds of butter valued 
at $30,494; and its 5 cheese factories, with 181 patrons 
milking 1,150 cows, produced 349,170 pounds of cheese 
valued at $34,233. The combined value of the products of 
dairy, field, pasture, and poultry yard was $228,600; and 
this, divided among 304 farms, assigns to them an average 
income of $745 — a decided increase since 1880, when the 
average was only $342. 

The forested condition of the township, while a distinct 
hindrance to the agricultural subjection of the land, afforded 
opportunity to the settlers not merely to obtain fuel, which 
for many years was over-abundant, and to obtain free 
fencing material, but also to add to their limited incomes by 
getting out for the market saw logs, hoop-poles, cord wood, 
and railroad ties. The presence of sawmills in the town 
or on its borders also made building material cheap to 
those owning saw timber. "Persons engaged in clearing," 
said the editor of the Manitowoc County Herald, Jan. 11, 
1851, "always find more or less valuable timber which has 
a ready market and is thus made a valuable source of 
assistance in promoting early improvements." iVs late as 
1869, and doubtless for some years thereafter, the majority 
of the farmers were still marketing "forest products" — 
some of them to the extent of $200 to $300, and from these 
figures down to $10 or $15. 

The great road to Green Bay entered the town of Newton 
at section 30, and running northeast emerged at section 



10 Joseph S chafer 

3 near Silver Lake. A branch of this road led east to 
Manitowoc, and other roads reached the county town from 
the south. From early times there were piers near where 
later the village of Northeim grew up, and stores at that 
point (with later a creamery) made it a great convenience 
to the farmers living in the southeastern and southern 
portions of the town. The rail line of the Milwaukee, 
Lake Shore and Western Railway enters from the south 
at section 34 and leaves the town at the northeast corner 
of section 1. Its station of Newport is in section 34. 
This line was completed to Manitowoc in 1873. There 
was a mill in section 7, one at Silver Lake, one at Manitowoc 
Rapids two miles from the north line of the town, and of 
course others at Manitowoc about five miles away. Black- 
smiths and wagon makers were located within the town, 
and from the year 1855 there was a post office at Newton- 
burg in section 8, with later one at Northeim in section 35. 
By 1878 the town had two cheese factories, one in section 
5 and another in section 28. From that time, factory 
dairying gradually developed until it became the dominant 
industry of the people, as we have seen. 

SOCIAL CONDITIONS 

Newton is known as one of the most distinctively 
German towns of Wisconsin. Among the original entry- 
men of the land were a goodly proportion of American 
names. But some of these were speculators taking up 
numerous tracts for resale to settlers. The earliest entries, 
numbering ten, in 1836 were all by Americans. After that 
no more entries are recorded until the year 1847, when 
36 were made by Americans, but a larger number — 41 — 
by persons with foreign names. In the year 1848 the 
number of entries was 77, mostly made by foreigners. The 
latest date of entry for any of the lands in the township is 
1858. It is noticeable that, while Americans frequently 
took up scattered tracts, showing that they were taken 



Documenting Local History 



11 



for speculation, the foreigners generally bought one, two, 
or three forties in compact form for home making. In the 
total, foreigners entered 110 tracts, as against 81 entered 
by Americans (at least by English-speaking persons). 

An analysis of the population has been made from the 
manuscript census schedules of 1850, 1860, and 1870. 
The results may be tabulated as follows : 



NATIVITY 

U. S., except Wisconsin. 
Wisconsin 

Austria 

Baden 

Bavaria 

Bohemia 

Brandenburg 

Canada 

Denmark 

England 

France 

Hanover 

Hesse 

Holland 

Holstein 

Ireland 

Lippe 

Luxemburg 

Mecklenburg 

Nassau 

Norway 

Oldenburg 

Poland 

Prussia 

Russia 

Sardinia 

Saxony 

Scotland 

Sweden 

Switzerland 

Wlirttemberg 

Total, Foreign -born 
Total, Native-born . 



1850 



1860 



1870 



30 
29 



1 

1 

35 

1 



38 



112 



64 
1 



272 
59 



33 
409 

34 
13 
52 
26 

7 

6 

3 

14 

57 

24 

13 

8 

61 



128 
5 
3 
6 

24 

446 

2 

1 

22 
3 
1 

12 
2 



973 
442 



28 
965 

31 
20 
39 



52 

36 

6 

154 



578 



953 
993 



12 Joseph S chafer 

Some of the facts which emerge from this investigation 
are rather astonishing. For example, it was found that in 
1860 only two heads of families were of American origin, 
all the rest being foreign and, with few exceptions, German. 
Many of the children of German parents, of course, were of 
American nativity, which gave the town its total of 442 
natives as against 973 foreign-born. The census of 1850 
shows 272 foreign-born and 59 native-born, or only 20 per 
cent native. By 1870 a decided change has come about, 
the native element being now slightly in the majority. 
From this point we rely on the state census, which was 
taken at the middle of the decade, and we find in Newton in 
1885 a total of 1,892, of which 597 were foreign-born, or 
31.5 per cent of the whole number, while 1,295, or 68.5 
per cent, were American-born. Ten years later, 1895, the 
figures stand: 1,607 American and 532 foreign, or a fraction 
over 75 per cent American and a fraction under 25 per 
cent foreign. 

The last state census examined, that of 1905, shows a 
reduction in the total population of the town from 2,139 
(in 1895) to 1,741. This is doubtless due to the high 
mortality rate among the older generation and the partial 
dispersion of families through the withdrawal of adult 
young persons, the trend to the city having set in strongly. 
The proportions of native and foreign now stand: 1,451 
native to 290 foreign. In other words, only 16f per cent 
of the population were of foreign birth, while the native 
element made up 83% per cent of the whole. Inasmuch 
as the entire state, in 1905, showed a native element which 
was only 77.34 per cent of the whole, it is clear that this 
town had been "Americanizing" at an exceptional rate, 
relatively to other communities. 

A comparative study of nativities of twenty -five towns, 
including Newton, from the state censuses of 1895 and 
1905 yields this result: In 1895 the town of Newton stood 



Documenting Local History 13 

number 14 on the list arranged to show the smallness of the 
percentage of foreign-born in the population, while in 1905 
this town stood number 8. This proves that the process 
of change from foreign to native, as it proceeded in the 
town of Newton, was exceptionally rapid both positively 
and comparatively. To understand how this came about it 
is only necessary to contemplate the permanent occupation 
of the farms by the original German entrymen of the land, 
or the German emigrant purchasers of privately owned 
wild land. These emigrants, coming in the forties and 
fifties of the last century, were, as the census record shows, 
mainly young adults. Their children, so far as they were 
born in Wisconsin, would be natives and some of these 
children would inherit the lands on the death of the parents. 
When the older generation had passed away, the population 
would be entirely native, save for that comparatively small 
number of the younger generation who were born in Ger- 
many prior to the emigration of their parents. 

That the above is essentially the process which changed 
the town of Newton in fifty years from an almost purely 
German to an almost purely American community is nearly, 
if not quite, demonstrable from documentary sources. 
It is noteworthy that, out of the 1,451 American-born in 
1905, 1,434 (or all but 17) were natives of Wisconsin. 
Doubtless nearly all of them were born in the town of 
Newton itself. This view is strengthened by a comparison 
of the names of landowners in 1860 with those of later 
dates, as shown by the county maps. On the map of the 
year 1903 we identify 82 names of persons who owned land 
in the township in 1860. In most cases the land held was 
in the same sections and constituted in part or in whole 
the original farms. Recalling that the number of farm 
owners in 1860, according to the census, was 228, we see 
that the proportion of persisting families must have been 
very large. The biographies in the county history include 



14 Joseph Schafer 

the names of 18 persons who resided in the town of Newton 
in 1910. In all cases they were then living on the farms on 
which they were born. 

We implied above that the farms of Newton could hardly 
be said to be "made" until about 1880. And no doubt 
there was for a number of years some shifting about — 
some buying, mortgaging, and selling — among those hold- 
ing inferior or small tracts. It would be more normal, 
therefore, to compare the owners of about 1880 with those 
of 1903. We have a county plat book for 1878, on which 
we identify 140 names appearing on the plat of 1903, 
twenty-five years later.^ This shows that nearly one-half 
of the original farm makers' names cling to the soil of the 
township. Were we able to determine the cases where 
men from outside married daughters of the old families 
and substituted their own names, it would increase still 
further the roll of the permanent families. No comparisons 
with other towns have yet been made on this head, but one 
risks little in asserting that Newton has been socially one 
of the most stable farming communities in the state. 

When we ask the reason for this stability, the answer 
will have to be sought partly in racial characteristics, 
partly in economic conditions, and doubtless largely in the 
facts of the early social organization. There is probably 
some truth in the oft reiterated assertion that the Germans 
"stick to the land" much more tenaciously than native 
Americans and most foreign immigrants. That would 
be more true, however, of those who live together in groups 
that are organized to practise their native speech, to enjoy 
their chosen religion and distinctive recreational and social 
life, than among those who are racially scattered depend- 
ently in the midst of an alien life to which at first they 
can but imperfectly adapt themselves. Now the Germans 
of Newton town, who were at first largely of the Lutheran 

* Many names are badly misspelled but can be identified under their disguises. 



Documenting Local History 15 

and Evangelical Reformed faiths, had their own churches 
and parochial schools within the town, and at these doubt- 
less much of the social and recreational life was centered. 
Stores, mills, taverns, repair shops, all existed locally at 
points convenient for the farmers, thus minimizing the 
necessity for frequent visits to towns, so unsettling to the 
habits of rural youth. 

The fact that the land was hard to subdue to cultiva- 
tion, but generously productive when cleared, may have 
had its effect. The original settlers bent themselves to the 
heavy task of "grubbing and breaking," devoting to it, 
with their families, in not infrequent instances as many as 
twenty or twenty -five years. Fields won by such persistent 
and prolonged toil, especially if they be rich and fruitful, 
are apt to be appreciated from a sentimental as well as 
an economic viewpoint. 'T spent my life making this 
farm in order that my children may have a stake in the 
country," is an idea often heard among pioneer farmers, 
especially foreigners to whom landholding seems to confer 
social distinction and the founding of a family implies a 
landed property as a basis. 

But there is another fact to consider in this connection. 
The period of farm making, which invariably deprives the 
children of those opportunities for education which become 
so abundant in later stages, and which readily fit youth 
to pursue almost any career, was here just about long 
enough to absorb the entire energies of the older children. 
These would be well trained to the routine of farm life, 
but having no other hope than to farm on the hard-won 
acres, would be very ready to take their parents' places. 
The younger children drifted easily into new occupations and 
fitted into new surroundings. 

It will be interesting to determine, from comparative 
studies, whether the forest settler's family tends more 
strongly to persist than does the prairie settler's family. 



16 Joseph S chafer 

or vice versa. Casual observation seems to suggest that 
the prairie family shifted much more readily. One im- 
portant reason for this would seem to have been the habit 
and bent for wheat growing. No other form of early 
agriculture was so immediately remunerative under favor- 
able conditions. Accordingly, whenever the lands in one 
region refused longer to produce good crops, the farmers 
who had been wheat growers and were equipped for that 
business moved west to new and ever new wheat lands. 
It is apt to be so with the growers of staple crops. It was 
so with the Virginia tobacco growers and the Carolina 
cotton growers. The devotee of a single crop, especially 
if his capital is invested in equipment to a greater extent 
than in land, because he dreads to make more change 
than he is compelled to make in his occupational habits 
and expenditure shifts his location and continues in the 
old lines of endeavor. The "mixed farmer," on the other 
hand, who learns to raise equally well a variety of products — 
*'a little bit of everything" — is in much better case when 
new adaptations are demanded, for he can more readily 
modify his activities to suit the requirements. His training 
is more general and he is less bound by financial or social 
consideration to continue in the old path. So it is not 
surprising that the men of Newton,' who "made a hand" 
with ax and mattock at the outset, drove the breaking 
plow through soil, grubs, and undergrowth, reduced the 
raw land to a high state of tilth, and grew all of the small 
grains indifferently, as opportunity, seasons, and prices 
suggested, meantime tending cows and other cattle, should 
be prepared when the right time arrived to stress more 
and more one of the old occupations — caring for cows — 
until that business became almost a profession. 

Printed biographies of men and women who are natives 
of Newton tell us something about the early settlers, what 
manner of folk they were, what their worldly condition, 



Documenting Local History 17 

their training, and the mode of their entry into the com- 
munity's Hfe, with facts about their achievements. The 
History of Manitowoc County presents about forty such 
sketches. We have in them accounts of famiHes setthng 
on the heavily timbered wild land, usually beginning home 
life in a log hut — in one case, in a temporary shelter of 
bark — and gradually working their way to independence; 
of sons and grandsons who became business men, profes- 
sional men, teachers, scientific farmers, inventors; of 
daughters and granddaughters who were the partners of 
successful men in all these pursuits. References to the 
pioneer ancestors reveal that the town of Newton was 
served by men of special training — that some who settled 
there were blacksmiths and worked at their trade, others 
wagon makers, others millers, others carpenters, and so 
forth. We learn that, while most of the immigrants were 
poor to begin with, a few came with appreciable sums of 
money, and these built grist mills, sawmills, taverns, and 
stores, and helped during the time of beginnings in pro- 
moting the construction of churches and schools, as well 
as in other public improvements. 

The Civil War record of Newton is expressed mainly in 
the soldiers the town furnished. These apparently num- 
bered forty-two,^ as given in the Roster, of whom two were 
killed in action; two died of wounds received in battle; 
three others were discharged on account of wounds and 
disability ; and six died of disease. Four earned the unenvi- 
able title of deserters. But it seems clear that these must 
have been "floaters," for their names — all non-German — 
are alien to the list of family names of the town in 1860. 
The amount raised by tax for bounties in the year ending 
May 31, 1865, was $2,100.4 

* There may be a question about four of these. They are listed as from Manitowoc 
County, but their names seem to identify them as belonging to Newton families. 

* Durrie, D. S., Gazetteer of Wisconsin, MS. 



18 Joseph S chafer 

When the vast labor of compiHng the records of soldiers 
of the World War shall have been completed in the form in 
which it has been begun by the Adjutant General of Wis- 
consin, it will be possible to give the results with measurable 
completeness. 

Politically, the town of Newton was for many years 
overwhelmingly Democratic, which is normal for the 
period up to 1860, considering the prevailing nationality of 
its people. So nearly unanimous were the voters in the 
gubernatorial election of 1859 that Randall, Republican, 
received but one single vote, while his Democratic oppo- 
nent, Hobart, polled 72 votes. Nevertheless, the next 
year, in the presidential contest, Lincoln was given a 
majority, 128, against 77 for Douglas and none for either 
Breckenridge or Bell. This was due, no doubt, to the 
powerful free-soil and antislavery sentiment which pre- 
vailed among the Germans. Manitowoc County gave 
Lincoln 2,041, Douglas 1,947, a result which astonished 
both Democrats and Republicans.^ 

Thereafter the county again voted regularly for the 
Democratic presidential ticket until 1896. The town of 
Newton, on the other hand, shifted from Republican to 
Democratic and back again in a most eccentric fashion, 
the causes of which call for investigation. McClellan 
received a majority of 44 in 1864, while Grant won by 36 
votes in '68 and Greeley by 46 in '72. Tilden had a major- 
ity of 27 in '76, Garfield 25 in 1880, and Blaine 3 in '84. 
In 1888 Harrison and Cleveland each received 173 votes, 
as did the gubernatorial candidates also.^ But in '92 
Cleveland received 165 as against 98 for Harrison, the 
state ticket polling identically the same numbers. McKin- 
ley defeated Bryan 214 to 147 in '96, and 182 to 123 in 1900; 

^ See Manitowoc County Herald, Nov. 15, 1860. 

• That makes the vote in 1890, for governor, appear on the face of it very strange. 
It stood: Peck, Democrat, 196; Hoard, Republican, 77. But the Bennett Law issue 
explains it. 



Documenting Local History 19 

while Roosevelt in 1904 received 207 against Parker's 109. 
At that election 7 votes were cast for Swallow, Prohibi- 
tionist; and 3 for Debs, SociaHst. In 1908 Bryan obtained 
132, Taft 182, Debs 8. Taft was leader in the town again 
in 1912, with 101; while Wilson received 77, Roosevelt 47, 
Debs 2, and Chapin 2. Newton was strongly Republican 
in 1916, giving Hughes 219 and Wilson 90, with no scatter- 
ing votes, Philipp for governor running even with Hughes. 
The 1920 vote stood: Harding, 287; Cox, 27; Watkins, 3; 
Debs, 54. 

INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SPIRITUAL CONDITIONS 

The biographical sketches we have of pioneers tell us 
something of the intellectual and moral qualities of the 
makers of Newton, but on this head a large amount of 
local investigation is demanded. This section of the 
history cannot be written from existing documentary 
sources. 

A very little material can be gleaned with reference to 
the education of the young from the biographies of men 
reared in Newton. But we ought to know not only about 
the character of the public school and the parochial schools 
which existed in the town, and about the work of the most 
notable teachers who served them, but also about the 
young men and women who attended higher institutions of 
learning outside — normal schools, seminaries, colleges, and 
universities. A community's gift to the world lies largely 
in its trained young men and women. 

A similar statement can be made relative to its religious 
leaders. We obtain a few facts from the printed records of 
churches, but only a few. It is known that the first church 
in Newton was of the German Reformed faith, and we have 
the names of several clergymen of that faith, but little 
more. The census of 1860 notes, among the families, that 
of John A. Salzer, thirty -seven years of age, clergyman. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



Joseph Schafer 



20 ^.- ,-. 

016 091 787 8 

He has a wife and four children, the eldest being a boy of 
ten. Mr. Salzer was a native of Wiirttemberg, but since 
all the children were born in this country — in Illinois and 
Iowa — he must have come to America a number of years 
before. Presumably, Salzer was pastor of the church in 
Newton. A few years later we find the Reverend E. Wag- 
ner described as pastor of the Newtonburg church; and 
for at least ten years — 1874 to 1884 — the Reverend E. 
Strube occupied that post. The work of these men, their 
congregations and their school, for the moral and religious 
life of the town, deserves to be investigated. 

By the year 1878, according to the town plat of that 
year, there were five churches. We know from the Catholic 
History that St. Casimer's congregation (Catholic) was 
organized in 1868 and a church built at Northeim the same 
year, followed by a parochial school in 1874. Whether 
or not all of the other four churches were Lutheran or 
German Reformed we have no means here of determining. 

Nothing has been said about the fine arts, like music, 
carving, painting, sculpture, literature. The germs of 
these things are sometimes found in more unlikely places 
than such a rural community as Newton, and a complete 
historical survey would have to take them into account. 



